Hemp industry members are cheering Idaho for becoming the last state in the U.S. to legalize industrial hemp, making the crop now legal to produce in every state in the union, more than two years after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp as a commodity crop.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed legislation Friday to legalize the production, transportation and sale of industrial hemp in the state, allowing hemp production to begin in 2022.
Under the new law, the Idaho Department of Agriculture can move forward to develop rules and fees for the production, sale and processing of industrial hemp and submit a hemp production plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture “as expeditiously as possible, but no later than Sept. 1.”
Idaho’s hemp plan will be created in consultation with the governor, the director of the Idaho state police and Idaho’s agriculture industry.
The measure requires the plant’s total THC content, including THC-A, to come in at or below 0.3%, and hemp transporters must submit to law-enforcement searches and to allow peace officers to “randomly select reasonably sized samples not to exceed 20 grams” for THC compliance testing.
